We visited the Wright Brothers National Memorial in Kill Devil Hills, NC two summers ago. It was fascinating to see the actual site and the monuments for each of the first 4 flights. My family truly enjoyed the museum. It has been said that the Wright Brothers were one of the original practitioners of knowledge based development. In fact, the museum listed their three knowledge gaps (Lift, Power, and Control). They started with kites, then gliders, then a wind tunnel, more gliders, and once they were confident they had the knowledge, their first flight.
Understanding your knowledge gaps before you start your design is a key principle behind lean or knowledge based development. But how do you know what you don’t know? For me the answer was revealed by attending conferences like LPPDE North America 2018 where fellow practitioners share experiences and techniques. Anyone can follow a process but understanding why you are following one is even more important. Over a few years I developed an exercise called Knowledge Gap Analysis, but it never would have happened without access to these open environments.
Having the opportunity to share problems where learning happens both at presentations and around coffee is exceptionally rare. Last year I met multiple authors but equally important I met multiple champions working in the trenches of small and large companies. We all have the same problems to solve and looking for creative solutions. Join us in Columbus to share your experiences and learn.